River View Cemetery Historic Overview

River View Cemetery, circa 1901

Prepared by George Kramer, M.S., HP Senior Preservation Specialist Heritage Research Associates, Inc. Eugene,

October 2011

Heritage Research Associates Report No. 355

River View Cemetery Historic Overview

Prepared by George Kramer, M.S., HP Senior Preservation Specialist

Prepared for

TyLin International 285 Liberty Street NE #350 Salem, OR 97301

and

Multnomah County, Oregon

Heritage Research Associates, Inc. 1997 Garden Avenue Eugene, Oregon

October 2011

Heritage Research Associates Report No. 355

River View Cemetery - Historic Overview October 2011

Introduction River View Cemetery (sometimes mis-identified as Riverview) is a 300+ acre wooded and landscaped enclave located at the southwest corner of the intersection of Macadam Avenue and Taylor‟s Ferry Road, near the , in , Oregon. River View was established on land purchased by Henry W. Corbett and then sold on an interest-free note to the River View Cemetery Association, an organization formed by Corbett in association with , William S. Ladd and others. The Association adopted its initial bylaws on December 4, 1882 and remains a non-profit endowment care facility. “Owners of Interment rights in the cemetery become part of the River View Cemetery Association, thereby becoming owners of the cemetery” (River View, c2011).

From its beginnings, River View Cemetery was seen as a major milestone in Portland‟s development; a beautiful, serene, well-designed and maintained final resting place for the city‟s dead. Its graceful, almost park-like, natural setting quickly became a popular recreational destination for Portlanders, complimenting the project‟s primary purpose. River View‟s design was a response to what is called the pastoral or “rural” cemetery movement, an approach toward burial places in the that began in the early 19th century with the Mount Auburn Cemetery, near Boston. The nation‟s appreciation of the natural landscape in art, fueled by the works of the Hudson River School and Romanticism, sparked a similar movement toward “natural” burial grounds that meshed perfectly with the elaborate rituals surrounding death and grief during the Victorian era. Although termed “rural” cemeteries in an effort to characterize their highly designed qualities as being natural, rural cemeteries were typically located in highly urbanized settings. Often pre-dating public parks, rural cemeteries like River View frequently became popular destinations for family picnics, Sunday strolls and other leisure activities (Ward, 2010).

Prior to the construction of River View the citizens in Portland relied upon the , in East Portland, for burials. East Portland, a separate city until 1891, was located across the and the difficulties associated with transporting the dead and the grieving by ferry boat, coupled with new opinions on the proper setting for interments, led to Portland‟s growing interest in establishing a more attractive, and more convenient, burial ground of its own.1 As such, River View was an important step in Portland‟s maturing self-view of itself as the primary metropolis of the region.

1 The first Morrison Bridge, first span across the Willamette, was not completed until 1887, five years after River View was opened.

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With all due respect to the sacred ground of Lone Fir that holds so many loved ones, still it must be admitted that it is to a certain degree a primitive place....Its very inconvenience of access should be reason sufficient for a burying ground on this side of the river (Oregonian, 8-April-1883, 8:4-5).

Founders River View‟s genesis was guided by the leadership of a veritable who‟s who of Portland business and culture, a group that assured the cemetery‟s status as a key element in the city. The original trustees of the River View Cemetery Association included, in addition to the previously mentioned Ladd, Failing and Corbett, luminaries such as Matthew P. Deady, Oregon‟s pioneer judge for whom the ‟s Deady Hall is named. The founder‟s second generation was well represented by Henry J. Corbett2 and William M. Ladd. Edward Failing, Henry‟s younger brother and business partner, was also an original trustee. Upon the Association‟s formation, Henry W. Corbett served as the Association‟s president, with William S. Ladd as vice-president and William M. Ladd as treasurer. Edward Failing as appointed as the Association‟s clerk (River View, 1882). Brief biographies of the three primary founders the River View Cemetery, all of whom are interned in what is now called “Founders Grove,” follow.

Henry W. Corbett (1827-1903) arrived in Portland in 1852 and opened a small mercantile business. He soon grew into one of the city‟s most prominent and affluent businessmen. Corbett served a term as one of Oregon‟s U.S. senators (1867-1873). In 1868 he acquired a controlling interest in the First National Bank of Portland. Corbett also served as President of the Willamette Steel and Iron Works as well as the Company. Corbett also served on the Board of Directors for several of the city‟s powerful street railway companies and the Oregon Steam and Navigation Company, among many other prominent business and community organizations (Gaston, 1911:8-9). Upon Sen. Corbett‟s death, devoted a full page to his life and accomplishments, in addition to a front page article on his passing under a headline that “Portland‟s Foremost Citizen” had passed (Oregonian, 1-April-1903). “The labors of Mr. Corbett became an integral part of the history of Portland and this section of the country” (Gaston, 1911:22-26).

William S. Ladd (1826-1893) came to Portland from Vermont in April 1851 and quickly rose in local prominence, becoming the city‟s fifth mayor in 1854-55. Ladd joined with a silent partner, Charles E. Tilton, a successful San Francisco businessman and friend,3 to form W. S. Ladd and Company in 1854. In 1859 the pair joined to form the Ladd

2 Henry J. Corbett own son, Henry L. Corbett, served twice as President of the Oregon Senate. Henry L. Corbett‟s mother was the daughter of William S. Ladd. 3 Ladd was betrothed to Caroline Elliot, Tilton‟s cousin from New Hampshire, whom he would later marry.

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and Tilton Bank, reported as Portland‟s first bank and the first north of San Francisco on the Pacific Coast. Ladd later joined with Asahel Bush to form the Ladd and Bush Bank, of Salem, another successful financial enterprise. Among his many business ventures, Ladd was active in the Portland Flour Mill, Oregon Iron Works, Oregon Steam Navigation Company, the Oregon Central Railroad Company and the Portland Hotel (Lansing, Oregon Encyclopedia). Today he is perhaps best remembered for his real estate effort in creating the characteristic plan of Ladd‟s Addition, in southeast Portland. “No individual character ever more fully apprehended and embodied the genius and possibilities of the Oregon that was to be than did he” (Oregonian, 10-January-1893).

Henry Failing (1834-1898) arrived in Portland in 1851 and with his father, Josiah, built a store on Front Street, south of Oak, selling dry goods. By 1869 the Failing company was wildly profitable and Henry joined with Henry Corbett to purchase a controlling interest in the First National Bank of Portland. Failing served as the bank‟s president for the rest of life. In January 1871 Failing again joined with Corbett, consolidating their mercantile businesses into the firm of Corbett, Failing and Company. Failing was active in state politics and served three times as Portland‟s mayor. He later served as Chair of the Portland Water Commission, a position he held from 1885 until his death (Gaston, 1911:66-71). At Failing‟s death Portland‟s Mayor, W. S. Mason, ordered that “...as a token of respect for his many virtues, the flag will be raised at half-mast at City Hall” (Oregonian, 9-November-1898, 8:2).

River View‟s three major founders not only brought the venture instant respectability and financial security, but considerable other benefits through their many interconnecting business ventures. By late-1888/early 1889, River View Cemetery was a sufficiently popular destination for Portland that one of its earliest trolley lines, operated by the Metropolitan Railway Company, began electric streetcar service to the cemetery. Metropolitan was capitalized at $200,000 with support from leading financial institutions, which of course included the banks that were owned and controlled by River View‟s influential founders. “Some Ladd & Tilton money also went into the venture, as access to the cemetery was essential to its founders, Ladd, Henry W. Corbett and Henry Failing” (MacColl, 1988:265). Within a year, by 1890, an intrepid Portlander could travel all the way from St. Johns to River View on a single fare (Labbe, 1980:67). As River View Cemetery came to be seen as the most desired final resting place for many of Portland‟s most prominent families, as many as fifty earlier burials at Lone Fir were disinterred and moved to the new, natural, cemetery.

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River View Cemetery - Historic Overview October 2011

Landscape Design and Construction After Corbett, Ladd and Failing had secured “a proper location” for the cemetery, as described in the River View Cemetery Association bylaws as being “...sufficiently removed from the limits of town to prevent any apprehension of interference by the encroachments of increasing population,” they needed to design the site for its intended purpose.

A diligent search and careful examination of every piece of ground within a reasonable distance has resulted in the selection of a tract on the west side of the Willamette River about three miles south of the city; the tract embraces portions of the donation land claims of Hector Campbell and Thomas Stephens and contains about two hundred and eighty acres. The grounds have been declared by competent judges to be unsurpassed in natural advantages and in order that they might be laid out in the best possible manner, the projectors of the work secured the services of Mr. E. O. Schwägerl, well known as one of the most accomplished landscape engineers in the United States; under his supervision the natural beauties of the situation have been preserved and enhanced by judicious improvement of the entire tract; and that portion already completed affords ample proof of his taste and skill (River View, 1882).

Edward Otto Schwagerl (1842-1910) was born in Germany and came to the United States in 1854. By the late-1860s, after eighteen months in the office of Jacob Weidenmann, a noted landscape architect in Hartford, Connecticut, Schwagerl set out on his own. He worked in Omaha and then, by 1870, in St. Louis, Missouri, where he developed the master plan for St. Louis University.4 After moving his firm to Philadelphia, Schwagerl was contracted for work in Ohio, where he was put in charge of the layout and design of Cleveland‟s Riverside Cemetery. Riverside, a “rural” cemetery, was widely regarded as one of the most notable new cemetery designs of the era, leading to Schwagerl‟s contract for the design of Woodlawn Cemetery, in Toledo, Ohio. Schwagerl is also credited with cemetery designs in Canajoharie Falls, NY and Hannibal, Missouri (Seattle Daily Times, 28- Jan-1910). The success of the Riverside Cemetery brought Schwagerl to the attention of Henry Failing, and in 1879 led to his commission for the design of River View. “His plan incorporated many of the same features that had made „rural‟ cemeteries popular in the East and which were reflected in his own plans for Riverside Cemetery...and Woodlawn” (Culbertson, 2005).

4 See http://kurtculbertson.blogspot.com/2006/11/landscape-architecture-projects-by.html (visited 15-June- 2011).

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After the River View Cemetery, Schwagerl moved to , where he laid out Wright Park, Port Defiance Park, and other projects for the City of Tacoma, serving as that city‟s parks superintendent. In 1892 Schwagerl became the Superintendent of Public Parks in Seattle, where he designed Kinnear Park and developed a comprehensive city parks plan. That plan was later “...eclipsed by that of the Olmsted Brothers” (www.metroparkstacoma.org, visited 15-June-2011).

River View Cemetery and Superintendent‟s Lodge West Shore Magazine, January 1884

Schwagerl was apparently hired by the River View Cemetery Association sometime in mid- 1879 and the plans for the new cemetery were presented to the public by December of that year.

The tract...to be used as a cemetery as been cleared of such trees and other natural features as are not desired for adornment, and the work of laying it out will soon commence. Mr. E. O. Schwagerl, a landscape gardener, who has much experience in this class of work in the east, has arranged the features of the ground and prepared large and elaborate maps which will be exhibited today and tomorrow at the Library room (Oregonian, 16-December-1879, 3:2).

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As the construction of River View was underway, the Oregonian ran a lengthy piece on what it termed “God‟s Acre,” claiming that the new cemetery would be “...beautiful for situation and convenient of access, it will be the pride of the metropolis.”

The cemeteries of cities should be one the most noticeable features....if this be so, what world of gratification must the citizens of Portland feel in its possession of one of the finest situations for a cemetery in the United States (Oregonian, 8-April-1883, 8:4-5).

A decade later, claiming that River View was “the most beautiful cemetery on the Pacific Coast,” the Oregonian stated “The loveliness of the spot well might cause the most ardent advocate of cremation to waiver in his convictions” (Oregonian, 22-October-1899, 18:1-2).

Building Design

Riverview Cemetery, one of the city’s oldest, would be particularly discriminating in its choice of architects (Bosker-Lenek, 1985:170).

Landscape architect Schwagerl designed several structures for the River View project that were never built, including an elaborate “receiving building” (see page 11). “Schwagerl‟s plan for the cemetery was implemented but his design of a chapel and receiving vault structure were never realized” (Culbertson, 2006). Instead, as a part of the original development of the site, the River View Cemetery Association commissioned the construction of what was described as a “Gothic Revival” structure, designed by the noted Portland architect Warren H. Williams. This stone building, which is shown in the West Shore lithograph reproduced above and on Page 11, was razed to allow for construction of a new building on its site, designed by Lawrence and Holford. “[T]he two story Georgian brick caretaker‟s cottage capped with a „widow‟s walk‟ replaced the original Gothic Revival structure” (Bosker and Lenek, 1985:170).

The brick Caretaker‟s Cottage, now better known as the Superintendent‟s House, was designed by Ellis Fuller Lawrence, of the firm Lawrence & Holford. The Superintendent‟s House was completed in November 1913 (Shellenbarger, 1987). Ellis Fuller Lawrence, an established Portland architect, is chiefly of note as the founder and long-time dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Oregon, as housed in Lawrence Hall, named in his honor. The Superintendent‟s House at River View is the only one of several buildings that Lawrence & Holford built for the River View Cemetery Association that survives.5

5 Lawrence also designed entry gates for the cemetery, removed in 1928, and an office building completed in 1913 of Georgian style similar to the Caretaker‟s Cottage. Shellenbarger states that it no longer survives but does not date the removal. The Lawrence inventory includes information on the River View Abbey Mausoleum (built 1916), an unrelated structure located across Taylor‟s Ferry Road from River View Cemetery.

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Located facing Macadam Avenue, the two-story brick building is topped by a truncated hipped roof with a heavily detailed box soffit highlighted by regular dentils. Multi-light windows, with shutters, pierce the symmetrical facade, flanking a fine entry below a half- round shell detail. The wooden widow‟s walk, originally highlighting the building‟s roof, was removed sometime after 1987 and no longer survives. The Superintendent‟s House at the River View Cemetery was Determined Eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion C, as an exemplar of the Georgian style, in April 2010 (Feldman/CH2M-Hill, 2010).

Lawrence and Holford were not the last influential Oregon architects to contribute to the River View design. Lawrence‟s original entry gates were removed in 1928 and replaced by current gates designed by A. E. Doyle. “While on his death bed, Doyle communicated his conception for the inverted Ionic columns, a symbol of death, to Pietro Belluschi, who at Doyle‟s bedside, sketched out the design according to Doyle‟s wish” (Bosker-Lenek, 1985:170). Later, in 1945, Belluschi himself would work at River View, designing the River View Chapel Mausoleum and Office.6 Between 1957 and 1959 Richard Sundeleaf, a student of Lawrence‟s at the UofO, and a former employee of Doyle and Belluschi, designed significant additions to Belluschi‟s chapel at River View. In 1969 architect William Fletcher‟s Hilltop Memorial “...brought a contemporary, almost neo-Brutalist version of the Parthenon” to the hill overlooking the Willamette River” (Bosker-Lenek, 1985:170).

Interments As Portland‟s premier cemetery for more than a century, River View today has many notable interments, beginning with its founders, Messrs. Corbett, Ladd and Failing. The odd story of William S. Ladd‟s interment at River View is among the more repeated. Shortly after his death, Ladd‟s grave site was robbed and his body held for ransom. “To

“The building has been extensively altered by others over the years, however the facade is still visible” (Shellenbarger, 1987). 6 Pietro Belluschi (1899-1994), one of Oregon‟s most famed architects, is of note as a founder of the so-called “Northwest Style,” as well as for his design of the Equitable Building (1947) in downtown Portland. After becoming Dean of Architecture at MIT in 1951, he gained an increased national reputation, including works such as the Pan Am Building in , the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption in San Francisco, and the Rohm and Haas Headquarters in Philadelphia. Belluschi won the prestigious AIA Gold Medal in 1972.

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River View Cemetery - Historic Overview October 2011 ensure that no such incident could occur again, Ladd‟s coffin was encased in concrete after being returned to its rightful resting place” (Klooster, 1987).

Numerous pioneers are buried at River View, men and women who built much of early Portland and whose names are familiar to anyone reading a city map or studying early Oregon. These include Benson, Flanders, Glisan, Burnside, Ankeny, Hoyt, Kamm, Skidmore, Pittock, Weinhard and Terwilliger. Former Oregon Governors include , Oregon‟s governor under the provisional government prior to statehood (and for whom Abernethy Island, in Oregon City, is named, as well as the I-205 bridge [“”] between Oregon City and West Linn), A. C. Gibbs, La Fayette Grover, Charles Martin, , George Woods and Paul Patterson. US Senators and Members of Congress buried at River View, in addition to Henry Corbett, include Joseph N. Dolph, Rufus Holman, Nan Wood Honeyman, John Mitchell, Fredrick Mulkey and Richard Williams. Other notables include Harvey Scott, the longtime editor of the Oregonian who so fought against women‟s suffrage and Scott‟s sister, , who fought so hard to secure it. Frances Fuller Victor, a 19th century Oregon historian who wrote widely on the state‟s formative period on her own and with Herbert Howe Bancroft is buried at River View, as is Dorothy McCullough Lee, Portland‟s first woman mayor. Colonel Isaac William Smith, the man behind the locks at Willamette Falls and the Bull Run Reservoir, that still provides Portland‟s municipal drinking water, is buried here. So is Joseph N. Teal, another merchant who also played an important role in the construction of the locks and the steamboat business that helped build Portland. Lyle Alzado, a former NFL football standout is buried at River View, as is Carl Mays, a major league baseball pitcher for 15 seasons from 1915 to 1929. Perhaps most notorious among people buried at River View is Virgil Earp, the brother of Wyatt and a participant in the famed shootout at the OK Corral. When Virgil died in Arizona in 1899, his daughter, Nellie Law, who lived in Portland, arranged for the body to be shipped here. “Which is how one of the greatest gunslingers of the Old West came to be buried in Portland” (Oregonian, 2-September-1991).

Harvey Scott’s Comments Harvey Scott, the longtime and influential editor of the Portland Oregonian, wrote at length on River View Cemetery in 1890, less than a decade after its development. Scott (1838- 1912), as noted above, is buried at River View. He comments from History of Portland, reprinted verbatim and in their entirety, are below:

In 1882 a large and beautiful cemetery was provided, and a company organized, embracing the most wealthy men in the city, ex-Senator H. W. Corbett and W. S. Ladd being of the number. The site chosen was on the hilltops, four miles south of the city, above the macadam road. The grounds extend to the east of the eminence where there is a perfect view. The spot is now, as it ever will be, peaceful, near the sky, and if the departed still care for

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the beauties of the earth, affording them the best that Portland can give. By special provision the grounds are to be tastefully and even elaborately improved; nothing unsightly or uncouth to be allowed, and the graves of those whose friends are absent still to be kept green and adorned with flowers. It is a graceful feeling of the human heart that would make a little border land between this world and the unseen, and in this place cemented to this purpose by the people of Portland are found all the elements appertaining to this interest (Scott, 1890:444).

Images The following pages contain additional published views of River View Cemetery, taken from a variety of early sources. In addition, a map of the River View Cemetery, prepared by Kevin McCornack of Heritage Research, is included at the conclusion of this section. An appendix to this report includes thirty (30) color photographs of various views of the cemetery and its features. These photographs were taken in August of 2011 by photographer John Toso.

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Soldier‟s Monument, River View Cemetery Postcard View, c1905 (Author‟s Collection)

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Overlooking the Willamette River, from River View Cemetery, c1903 (Stereoscopic View)

River View Chapel and Receiving Vault (not built), by E. O. Schwagerl (West Shore Magazine, May 1881) University of Oregon Special Collections

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River View Cemetery (View from Macadam, note original gate posts) (West Shore Magazine, January 1884) University of Oregon Special Collections

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Map of River View Cemetery showing features and selected monuments.

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Sources Bosker, Gideon and Lena Lencek. Frozen Music: A History of Portland Architecture. Portland, OR: Oregon Historical Society, 1985. Culbertson, Kurt. Landscape Architecture Projects by German-American Designers. (http://kurtculbertson.blogspot.com/2006/11/landscape-architecture-projects- by.html, visited 15-Jun-2011). Landschaft und Gartenkunst: The German Influence in the Development of Landscape Architecture in America. (http://kurtculbertson.blogspot.com/2005/06/landschaft- und-gartenkunst-german.html, visited 15-June-2011). Feldman, Jessica (for CH2M Hill). OR SHPO Inventory-Section 106 Level of Effect; River View Cemetery. 24-March-2010. OR SHPO Inventory-Section 106 Level of Effect; River View Cemetery Superitendent’s House/Caretaker’s Cottage. 24-March-2010. Gaston, Joseph. Portland, Oregon: Its History and Builders, Vol. 2. Chicago and Portland: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1911. Klooster, Karl. Round the Roses - Portland Past Perspectives. Portland, OR: This Week Magazine, 1987. Labbe, John T. Fares, Please! Those Portland Trolley Years. Caldwell, ID: The Caxton Publishers, Ltd., 1980. Lansing, Jewell. Oregon Encylopedia, William S. Ladd (1826-1893). http://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/entry/view/ladd_william_s_1826_1893.html (visited 14-June-2011). MacColl, E. Kimbark (with Harry H. Stein). Merchants, Money & Power: The Portland Establishment 1843-1913. Portland, OR: The Georgian Press, 1983. Oregonian. Misc. Issues as cited by date in text. [Pacific Coast Architecture Database-PCAD] https://digital.lib.washington.edu/architect/architects/4962/ (visited 10-June-2011). River View Cemetery Association. Bylaws and Rules River View Cemetery Association of Portland, Oregon. Portland, OR: A. Anderson, Printers and Lithographers, 1882 [O- 719-PB5]. River View Cemetery (brochure), 2011. Scott, H[arvey] W., ed. History of Portland. Syracuse, NY: D. Mason & Company, 1890. Seattle Daily Times. “Noted Landscape Artist Dies Here,” 28-January-1910, 3:3. [Shellenbarger, Michael] Ellis Lawrence Building Survey; Riverview Cemetery-Superintendent’s House (Research by P. Sackett, 10-13-1987).

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Vaughn, Thomas & Virginia Ferriday, Eds. Space, Style and Structure: Building in Northwest America. Portland, OR: Oregon Historical Society, 1974. Ward, David G. “The Healing Landscape.” Catholic Cemetery Magazine, March 2010.

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APPENDIX:

RIVER VIEW CEMETERY PHOTOGRAPHS

John Toso, Photographer August 2011

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